How do we make Australia more prosperous?

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:01]Uh, good morning. The conversation I had with the economist Chris Richardson yesterday that I put up on YouTube channel last night actually made me pause for thought for a moment. And um, I was thinking about the budget again.

[00:00:15]And the way I'd like to frame it is this.

[00:00:18]There are two types of government.

[00:00:20]There's one type of government who thinks about how we can grow the economy, how we can make the economy prosper, how all Australians can prosper from their budget budget, how all Australians can increase their standard of living from the budget. In other words, the budget is where it starts. It's not the Reserve Bank, it's the budget. And the budget in those environments for those types of governments are called growth or prosperity budgets. Then there's the other type of government. There's a government that looks at welfare.

[00:00:58]So this is about the uh let's call it the care economy, the welfare of all Australians. And those budgets are probably more spending budgets, more directed at um raising more taxes so the government can spend more money for the welfare of parts of Australia. That's not welfare for all Australians. That's welfare for that welfare generally speaking is actually given to those who need help.

[00:01:24]So we don't really have space in our lives for the budgets to be either one or the other. Budget should be for both. Budget should address both parts of the economy. Budget should have a welfare element. In other words, allocate money to be spent that is raised from taxes to help out those people that need it. But equally, in order to be able to continually raise taxes, we need to have a prosperous country. So we need to be able to spend some of the money we raise to make sure the country becomes more much more prosperous, much more healthy and grows a lot more. That is growth in jobs, growth in revenues of every person who's in the organization. That is the country, that is, you know, every person who votes or every single person. We want their revenues to grow, their income to grow and both not only the gross end but at the net end other words after tax dollars.

[00:02:28]So the thought that came through my mind was I wonder how we would go if we tried to create a much more innovative nation, a country that's much more driven by innovation. And in order to do that we have to encourage Australians to innovate. And in order to do that we can't discourage them from doing it. In other words, we can't have a capital gains tax system that says to somebody, "Look, you start up a business and maybe you will employ lots of Australians in due course and maybe you're going to come with a great idea that's going to be a worldclass invention or world class innovation or world-class technology or just a world-class exporter or whatever it happens to be. Um, and at the same time, when you sell it, I'm going to tax you for half." So, in other words, me, the government, I'm now your your business partner for the rest of your life. I'm never going to contribute anything for you. But then on the day you sell your business, the profit you make, I'm going to take half of that away. So I wonder whether or not budgets like this could start to build into them tax incentives around people who do startups. Let's make Australia the country where everyone in the world wants to do their startup from. It's a great country, great climate, very safe, um, beautiful to look at, great place to live. But the problem is our taxes are quite prohibitive relative to other places in the world compared to Singapore, compared to no capital gains tax in say New Zealand, compared to Dubai um and or compared to the vibe and the environment that exists in places like um uh San Francisco.

[00:03:59]So Australia could really become the place to set up your startup. That will create employment. um that will create growth in our nation, that will create um a an environment where people come to and or you know young Australians can start to think about what about how can I build this great idea. So maybe what we should do is make a an exemption or an exception to the capital gains tax regime. That is if you have a startup maybe the value you create in the first five years is never going to be taxed.

[00:04:35]It's taxree and only they we only tax you know after the first five years any uh increase in value after that or just make it taxree. You do a startup it's taxree. You if you sell it you make a big profit. Good on you because most people don't make big profit by the way.

[00:04:51]Most people lose money in these environments. So you know it's not like they're going to be taxed. They're going to lose money. So those people who do make money and those people who have the courage to do a startup of any type, it doesn't have to be some big tech startup. Any type of startup, start a new coffee shop, whatever. I don't care.

[00:05:12]Maybe we don't tax them when they sell it. Maybe that's the deal. Maybe we got to start playing around with taxes. I think we need to lower our taxes in this country. we needed to do something really gutsy and uh lower taxes in this country and maybe therefore spend less.

[00:05:30]And where we do spend, we just spend on those people who really need it um as opposed to just splashing around the joint and leaving it open to be roed wherever the roers can find their way in.

[00:05:40]That's the problem. Uh roers are everywhere at the moment. And Australia looks like it's one of those European countries in the past where everybody was on the ro. Everybody was on the bandwagon. Everybody was having a crack at taking money from the government, which by the way is your money. The government doesn't have any money. Every dollar that the government has is our money. Every dollar they get in tax comes from you on every occasion. And it's as a result of your personal exertion. It's a result of the risks you take. It's a result of getting up every single morning and going to work. The government has no money unless it comes from you. So, let's demand more. Let's ask our politicians of a lot more. Let's expect more from them. Let's expect innovation.

[00:06:28]Let's expect risk-taking. Let's expect bold decisions that are there to not only look after those people who need help, but also make sure that this country grows. represented is the most prosperous country in the world which is what we should be the most prosperous country in the world and Australians have the highest standard of living in the world that's a place where everybody wants to come and then we'll be very careful as to who we let